Did the Bitcoin Cash Hash Wars Cause the Crypto Price Crash?

The value of Bitcoin continued to drop throughout this week. This resulted in Bitcoin dropping below $5,000, the lowest it’s been in 13 months. In the second half of November, Bitcoin saw a drop in the value of 14% within a 24-hour period. This could partly be due to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission’s sanctions on two crypto startups that were reportedly offering ICOs. Consequently, many other major cryptocurrencies also took a significant hit in value. Some of these coins include Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. In this post, we will be looking into what may have caused the latest crypto price crash.

The Initial Coin Offering Ruling

One of the first potential causes for this crypto price crash is the new ICO ruling. The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission made a decision to classify ICOs and unlicensed securities. This means that all of these types of offerings are against the law. Anyone hosting ICOs is subject to fines as well as restitution. While many people argue that the SEC’s intervention has been long overdue, the commision took a back seat in terms of observing and enforcing regulations within the crypto market. Until now. Be that as it may, the decision has definitely made man industry insiders question the viability of the current market environment during this period of grey area regulatory practices.

This decision by the SEC may not come as a surprise to some people, though it may have been enough of a shock to spook some investors away. Without clearer regulations being outlined by the U.S government and lawmakers across the globe, many investors will be hesitant to risk their capital.

The Bitcoin Cash Fork

While the ICO ruling could have been the factor that caused the recent crypto price crash, the BCH fork also made a lot of noise. The crash could have actually been a result of loyal bitcoin investors being torn between two coins. In the red corner, we have Bitcoin Cash ABC, weighing in at $191 (As of writing this post). In the blue corner, Bitcoin SV, weighing in at $102. While this event may provide some great entertainment, this fork is a divisive element that cryptocurrency could do without. Bitcoin ABC developers added a “checkpoint” that forces all miners to include the original Bitcoin Cash ABC blockchain in any chain. Without doing this, your chain will be deemed invalid by the software client. While there are other software options for users allowing them to opt out of the checkpointed version, it opens up the risk of another split.

The latest coin fork reaffirmed fears that Bitcoin Cash would become centralized. The main reason for Bitcoin Cash’s steep drops in value is supposedly a result of these types of fears. Be that as it may, it’s not the first time the cryptocurrency has forked. In fact, the changes that took place the last time this happened were also highly controversial, though it didn’t cause a drop in value like this time. Following this drop in price, Jehan Chu, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Kenetic Capital stated:

Bitcoin’s previously solid price anchor was unmoored by the recent Bitcoin Cash fork and is unlikely to recover anytime soon. Craig Wright’s antics have exposed the fragile relationship between decentralized technology and the outsize influence their figureheads wield. Until blockchain technology proves more useful than the people behind it, price levels are unlikely to remain sustainably high

Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia

Potentially, there is a third contributing factor that resulted in the recent crypto price crash. Recently, Nvidia and AMD announced some very disappointing results regarding cryptocurrency mining, even though both of these companies are leading suppliers of crypto mining hardware. People deem this drop in hardware sales as an indication of a drop in interest for cryptocurrency mining. As a result, the biggest question that stems from this situation is; whether miners saw this crypto price crash coming and stopped purchasing hardware, or if the drop in hardware sales made investors question long-term interest in cryptocurrency.

Consequently, Nvidia’s share prices fell to it’s lowest in 16 months following the announcement of the huge drop in hardware sales. In addition to this, the crypto price crash also could have been a factor. As it stands, it’s unclear if the drop in hardware sales is the result or the cause of the crash. Be that as it may, there is a clear correlation between both of these significant events in the cryptocurrency space.

SV is now ~50% of the market price of BCH. They have roughly the same hash power. All celebrations of victory are arrogant and premature. Competent businessmen (billionaires) do not start or end wars based on a few days of fighting.

Crypto Price Crash: Opinions from Market Insiders

In light of these recent events, many financial industry experts put their heads together to analyze the crypto price crash. For many people, this is the cause of the recent Bitcoin Cash fork. But for others, people believe it could be due to an ‘inevitable bubble burst’. A result of a period of unsustainable growth. A renowned crypto YouTube star by the name of Quinten Francois, Stated:

Market makers are finishing the cycle. Currently we are sitting under “the mean” or fair value of Bitcoin, which means that we are in the last bearish phase of the cycle called “despair”. After that we should see a market reversal and start a new cycle. How far we will fall is still a question, but a fact is that when Bitcoin would fall to $5,000 it would have lost 75% of its value top to bottom. That seems to be fair considering that a market loses less value every other cycle in the process of becoming mature. Last cycle Bitcoin lost 87% top to bottom (2014), but that was an entirely different market environment and industry

Michael Jeound, Trustverse CEO:

Crypto Civil War erupted from Bitcoin cash hard folk between ABC and SV (Satoshi Vision) has been one of the cause for the deep impact for the crypto market melt down and many investors are suffering from the incident. More importantly, this battle between ABC (Jihan Woo) vs. SV (Craig Wright), has no consensus from the public nor the DAU of Bitcoin Cash token holders and this makes it serious from the ethical point of view. It is centralized and monopolized power game, where blockchain is meant to become a public, decentralized trust mechanism. Price manipulation by power game is hurting digital wealth as well as it’s future value for technology development.

First of all, wasn’t blockchain more about sharability and shared economy? More and more I feel from this industry is that many things are manipulated, information asymmetry exists larger than the modern financial market, and moreover such incident really has impacted mistrust for many entities. No product or services that ignore right or customer satisfaction fails and this civil war really implies self-interest than public’s interest. Overall cryptocurrency transactions seem to be shorted and slowing down for now. My hopeful view is that the fundamental market has not been changed.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there will always be people using BCH capitulation to drive prices down. Some people are calling it technical trading, others are calling it bad practice. If the hash war isn’t truly over, then an influx in cash is potentially still yet to come. This could give way to either a price drop or a price stabilization. Either way, we could be looking at a further drop in price before we see worthwhile gains.

I believe that cryptocurrency will flourish no matter what. I mean really, does the price of bitcoin actually matter? This crypto price crash is nothing to worry about. These events are minor blips in the grand scheme of things. Blockchain technology is still new, and as a result, it’s always developing and improving. Eventually, a coin will uncover some groundbreaking technology that will make governments seriously consider if crypto is better than fiat. If anything, these low prices are a good thing, it makes it cheaper for me to buy in! Buying the dips is a great way to make a quick profit. Will you be buying the dip? Or do you think crypto is in a bad state? There is always time to find arbitrage opportunities while trading in order to make a few extra bucks. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Disclaimer Notice:

This article is intended to educate and should in no way be seen as investment advice or an enticement to use the ice3x.com platform. Bitcoin is highly volatile with big profit opportunities but you should also remember that you could lose part or all of your investment whenever you take part in any high risk investment. Bitcoin trading is not a regulated industry in South Africa, which in itself carries additional risks. IF YOU ARE NOT AN ASTUTE BITCOIN TRADER, SEEK INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVICE BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENTS.